How UK Children Are Getting Around Age Checks Online

Nearly a third of UK children have found ways to bypass age verification systems in the past two months, according to new research that reveals gaps in how the Online Safety Act is being carried out.

The research surveyed 1,270 children aged 9-16 and their parents. It found that 32% of children said they had gotten around age checks successfully. Almost half of those children said the systems were easy to beat.

Internet Matters, the organization that did this research, documented the techniques children use. Some are very simple—like typing in a false birthday. Others are more creative. Children have drawn on fake facial hair or used makeup to look older when facing a camera-based age check.

During the same period, 49% of the children in the survey came across harmful content online. This suggests that the age checks are not working the way policymakers hoped they would.

When Parents Help Children Bypass Age Checks

The research uncovered something unexpected: some parents are actually helping their children get around age verification. Sixteen percent of parents admitted to doing this, which creates a problem that technology alone cannot solve.

This raises an awkward issue. The Online Safety Act requires online platforms to use "strong" age verification before letting people access harmful or age-inappropriate content. But the law cannot force parents to support these protections. In fact, some parents are doing the opposite.

Why Age Checks Are Easy to Fool

Age verification systems have clear weaknesses. Camera-based systems—which try to guess someone's age by analyzing their face—are vulnerable to simple tricks. Makeup and drawn-on facial hair easily confuse them.

Date-of-birth checks are even weaker. These require no special technique to bypass. Users simply type in a false date. Many platforms have not moved to stronger methods, like checking government ID.

We have seen this happen before. When the early internet required credit cards as a way to verify age, children found workarounds then too. The methods have become more sophisticated as the technology has evolved, but the underlying problem remains the same.

Other Countries Are Seeing the Same Problem

The UK findings match what is happening elsewhere. In Australia, children are equally capable of bypassing age restrictions on social media, according to that country's online safety regulator. In the US, roughly half of states have passed or are considering laws that require platforms to block underage users, but children appear to navigate these requirements without much difficulty.

The pattern is clear across different countries and different legal frameworks: age verification technology faces real limits when children are determined to get past it.

Platforms Are Not All Doing This the Same Way

The research shows that different platforms are putting age verification into practice in very different ways. The Online Safety Act tells platforms to use "strong" verification, but it does not specify exactly how. This gives platforms a lot of flexibility in choosing which methods to use and how strict to be.

This flexibility might actually be making things worse. Children quickly figure out which platforms have the weakest checks and share the ways to beat them through text messages, social media, and other informal networks.

What This Means Going Forward

The Internet Matters research raises a serious question: is the current approach to keeping children safe online actually working? Right now, age verification is mostly about technology—checking if someone looks old enough or typing in a birthdate. But the evidence suggests this is not enough on its own.

In my view, protecting children online will need more than just better technology. It will need digital literacy—teaching children how to think about what they see and how to stay safe. It will also need clearer guidance for parents about what their role should be in these protections. Parents need to understand that helping children bypass age checks can put them at risk.

There is also a question of how to make better age verification systems. The camera-based systems we have now are too easy to trick. Document verification, linked parent accounts, and other methods exist, but each one comes with tradeoffs. Some are harder for legitimate users to use. Others raise privacy questions.

The Bigger Picture

This research shows that technology alone cannot solve the problem of age verification. Children are resourceful, and some parents are willing to help them bypass checks. That combination means we need approaches that address behavior and how families work together, not just better technology.

Some platforms may need to make it harder to cheat without making it too difficult for real users. Others may explore methods like government ID checks or parent account verification, though these bring their own challenges.

The core issue is this: in a digital world where identity is hard to verify and where people can be anyone they claim to be, age-based restrictions have real limits. As the UK and other countries measure how well these age verification rules are working, the Internet Matters research makes one thing clear: the current methods need significant improvement.